Aperture, partial external drive storage-possible ?

I am thinking about buying a new Air, however, even with 256gb I will not be able to put my entire Aperture library onto my computer's drive. I know that it is possible to place the entire library onto an external drive, but is it possible to split the library so that part is stored permanently on an external drive, while the rest is on the computer's drive?
For example, can I keep all my photos less than a year old on the computer, but keep the older photos on the external drive, and plug in the drive in when I wish to access these older pics?
Any advice appreciated.

This is how I currently use one of my Aperture Libraries. For the purposes of discussion, let's say I have only one computer, it is a laptop, I regularly work in more than one location, and I also work at home.
I split my Masters between managed and referenced. All new images are imported into my Library (the Masters are Managed). Semi-monthly, I move all managed masters which are older than 45 days onto an external HD dedicated to my full-frame digital negatives. (Of course, if I am still working on photos in a Project, I don't relocate the Masters.)
When I am at my office, I connect via Firewire 800 my external HD. With the connection made, I have full functionality for every image in my Library.
When I am not in my office, I have my laptop with me. I have full functionality for every image with a Managed Master (i.e.: everything taken in the last 45 days and anything else I have specifically left as Managed). I have access to the previews of all of my images -- I can't make adjustments or print images with off-line Masters, but I can keyword, label, move, and otherwise organize my images. I have shared Previews with other apps on my laptop, so I can use the Media Browser to attach images with off-line Masters to email, etc.
(In practice I always keep Projects intact (for me, one Project = one shooting session). If I need one or just a few photos from an older Project to be on-line when I am away from my office, I will relocate all of the images in that Project. I just find this easier.)
I have a Smart Album set to show me all Managed Masters older than 45 days. It is short work when I am at my office to relocate these Masters to my ext. HD.
This general set-up can be thought of as +"Most-recent Managed/Less-recent Referenced"+. I think it works well with any laptop. Where you put the dividing line betw. "Most-recent" and "Less-recent" will depend on your shooting habits, the size of your internal mass storage, and your other storage needs.
Be assured that Aperture handles this well, and makes administering it easy. (Fwiw, I wonder if this should be the default way Aperture works, auto-archiving Masters of a certain age.)

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Practicing using Final Cut Pro only on iBook via External Drive. Possible?

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hi there
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External drive storage & iTunes still shows up on PC hard drive @##$^&!!!!

I am sure someone has already encountered this and solved the problem, so please point me in the correct direction. I have a laptop with a 40G internal HD, an external 180G HD and a 60G iPod. You can see I want/need/have to have iTunes (the library) reside on the external HD _ONLY_ if I want to fill up my iPod. I loaded iTunes on the external (repeatedly) and moved it from the laptop internal only to have it reappear in my laptop everytime I access iTunes to download or anything else. I once deleted iTunes directly from the laptop and I had to re-load my library from my iPod (a painful process).
So, how do I keep iTunes from showing up on my laptop (the library) and eating up my HD space there?
thanks,
Stuck in St. Louis

You don't install iTunes on the external.
You put the library and music on the external.
To move your iTunes music...
1 - Quit iTunes.
2 - Move the entire iTunes folder including music to the external drive.
Click on the iTunes icon to start it, then immediately press an hold the Shift key in Windows, Option key in Mac.
3 - iTunes will ask to *Create new library* or *Choose existing library*. Select *Choose existing library* and select the library in the folder you just moved.
4 - Move the old iTunes folder to the trash but do not empty it.
5 - Restart iTunes normally and verify the songs work. If they do, empty the trash.
Note that the external must be connected, powered up and online BEFORE you start iTunes.

Moving Loops to an External Drive..possible?

Hey there..
Just upgraded to GB3. My previous version included 2 of the Jam Packs and I just bought the World Music pack. But my Powerbook is running a little low on disk space so I want to move all my loops to an external drive. Is there a simple way to do this or do I have to remove and reinstall everything. Also is there any way to make GB run from a drive that doesn't have OSX on it?
Thanks in advance!

Is there a simple way to do this or
do I have to remove and reinstall everything.
These are the steps for doing so with GB2, the location of the loops may have changed, but this should get you on the right path:
Quit GB if it's running
Move the loops found in
/Library/Application Support/GarageBand/Apple Loops/
to your external drive, along with any loops you may have installed from other sources.
Delete the files in the folder:
/Library/Application Support/GarageBand/Apple Loops Index/
is there any way to make GB run from a drive that
doesn't have OSX on it?
I can't say for absolutely certain under GB3, but as of version 2, GB's support files need to be on the Boot drive, so it has to have OS X on it.
--HangTime [Will COmpute fo rFood] B-|>

External drive storage and Time Machine backup.

I don't want to keep photos on my hard drive anymore as they take up too much disk space.
1. Can the "Pictures" directory that exists on all Macs be assigned a new location on an external drive? ie, I save photos to the "Pictures" directory and they automatically go to the external drive.
2. If I store all my photographs on an external drive can I have Time Machine back them up to another external drive I currently use for backing up my HD? If so, how do I set this up in Time Machine?
Merci buckets!

werdup wrote:
2. If I store all my photographs on an external drive can I have Time Machine back them up to another external drive I currently use for backing up my HD?
Yes, as long as it's formatted for a Mac, and you tell Time Machine to stop excluding it (externals are excluded by default).
If so, how do I set this up in Time Machine?
See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #32 for details and considerations.

Sharing external drive not possible since 10.8

Hi,
I have an usb-device attached to my imac (mac os x journaled and a fat32 usb-stick). There are the normal entries under /Volumes/*.
Before my upgrade to 10.8, I could just mount that drive via network other macs (10.6 + 10.7) like usershome or public folders.
In 10.8 everything appears (Macintosh HD, user-home, public folders and any other folder I share) except these external drives or any folder I share on these drives.
I log on to the imac via my apple-id (seems to be new in 10.8?).
Any idea what changed? Or how to fix that?
Thanks

So there seems to be a technical Bug:
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I photo and external drive

how do i save photos to external drive and possibly set it up that all photos go to external drive so i can save room on my hard drive

Hello Myron,
It can be very handy to store your iPhoto library (and your iTunes library for that matter) on an external drive. Make sure the drive is formated for Mac (MacOSExtended) rather than for Windows (MS-DOS, etc.). Storing Mac data on a windows formated drive reduces performance and can damage data over time.
Apple documents moving the library to other locations on their website: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=iPhoto/7.0/en/6331.html
You can check to make sure your drive is formated correctly and re-format if needed following another knowledge base article:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306143
Please be aware that if you do have to reformat the drive it will ERASE any information currently on the drive.
Cheers!

How to save all photos in IPHOTO to an external drive or USB?

How do I save my all the photos in my IPHOTO to an external drive or USB?

to an external drive or USB?
Before you copy the library to the external drive, make sure it has the correct file system. The file system needs to be MacOS Extended (Journaled). If the drive has a different file system,, save the content to a different drive and reform the drive, just like described in this document for Aperture:
Format external drives to Mac OS Extended before using with Aperture

Upgrading my intel iMac to internal SSD and running 1TB external drive from firewire 800 for mass storage while still using a second external drive for backups...my goal-speed with a SSD, to still have 1TB of room for everything i have now..possible?

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Aperture Vault & Time Machine on same external drive?

I learned from an Aperture ProLab teacher that using Time Machine as a backup for my Aperture library is not always successful (something about the packaged file format?) - and it was recommended that I use the Vault in Aperture. Is it possible (and how, if so) to partition my external drive to be used with both Time Machine (to back up my entire hard drive) and Aperture's Vault?

Jessica-
I don't see why not, if the external is really large. Just partition using Disk Utility.
However personally I recommend buying additional hard drives rather than partitioning. Mass storage is now cheap. We always grow into hard drive space anyway, and there is a design elegance to having spearate physical drives. Design elegance in backup routines tends to lead to less errors.
I buy quad-interface drives from OWC
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/
for connection speed as well as flexibility in repurposing drives, but for backup-only cheaper USB (slower) drives from Newegg or Deal.com also are ok. Just look at cost per GB to find drives of best value.
HTH
-Allen Wicks

Re: Leone's post May 2014 about how to best use an external drive with Aperture

I am trying to find Leone who had a great post May 2014 to Diane. I posted tho same message as a 'Reply' to the Leone/Diane posts but then was worried it would not show up since that was some time ago so I decided I should post it as new. Apologies if it comes through twice. I am having trouble as indicated below:
I found this response to the question about Aperture and external hard drives from last May. I bought a WD My Book 4TB and need to back up photos I have in Aperture (many!) to free up space. I am a photographer and need to be able to plug the external drive in as needed, pull a photo out from the WD and back into Aperture to work on it if needed.
I read your directions to Diane and have the external drive formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). I read the two ways you suggest to move part or all of my library to an external drive and still be able to use it in Aperture with all the metadata saved, as I need to continue to work with the images. I am not completely clear about the advantage of the 'referenced' method but decided to go with the Split Library because it sounded like the Referenced method would still keep originals (and take space) in Aperture. I'm not sure about this, but that was what I chose.
I have backed up my computer, formatted the drive then went to Aperture to begin. I do the 'Export' and it shows the external drive it will go to but when I click 'OK', it says "EXPORT LIBRARY FAILED - Library could not be create because the file system of the destination volume is not supported." I doubled checked to be sure the drive was Journaled which it was. I did call WD and talk to them but they told me this was outside their area.
Also, in Aperture, I have my photos in Projects by yymmdd. Is it possible to transfer Projects into the ext. drive without having to break them out of the Projects?
Any direction anyone might give would be greatly appreciated, Sandy

Hi Sandy,
I suggest taking a week or two to get to know Aperture better before proceeding. Aperture can do many things, and can do what you want. It's important to be specific about what you want, however. From what you've said, it appears that you don't yet know.
bybeeler wrote:
[1] I found this response to the question about Aperture and external hard drives from last May. I bought a WD My Book 4TB and need to back up photos I have in Aperture (many!) to free up space.
[2] I am a photographer and need to be able to plug the external drive in as needed, pull a photo out from the WD and back into Aperture to work on it if needed.
[1] A back-up is a copy of digital files stores on a separate device. A back-up is recommended because drives fail, and humans make mistakes. A back-up is not used to free up storage space.
[2] Aperture can be set up in many equally-usable ways. The program files reside (almost always) on your system drive. The data files can be anywhere you want them, as long as they are on locally-mounted drive(s). The main data file is your Library. The best place for it is on the drive that has the fastest throughput to your logic board. This is, in nearly 100% of machines, the system drive. But Aperture functions well with Libraries of secondary drives — internal or external — with sufficient throughput. USB-3 and Thunderbolt I (& II) provide sufficient throughput for using an Aperture Library on a secondary drive.
Nearly all photographers will fill whatever storage space is available (making data is what photographers do). The question is: what do you do when your Library no longer fits on your system drive? (And remember, you should leave at least 10% (I recommend 20% for heavy users of Aperture) of your system drive free.) The answer depends, primarily, on whether your computer is portable or fixed in location.
If fixed, just buy a more-than-large-enough secondary drive of USB-3 or faster throughput, mount it permanently, and move (using Finder) your Library to it.
If your computer is portable (and you can't increase the on-board storage), you have to select the best from several confusing alternatives:
• Put your Library on an external drive with throughput at least as fast as USB-3
— Pros: Easy to maintain and back-up.
— Cons: Must have drive with you in order to use your Library.
• Leave your Library on your system drive, but relocate your Images' Originals to an external drive.
— Pros: You can work on your Library without having the external drive available.
— Cons: You can't export (except Previews), Print, or make adjustments until your external drive is mounted. Significantly more difficult to administer, especially importing and backing-up.
• Leave your Library and and _some_ of your Images' Originals on your system drive, and relocate most of your Image's Originals to an external drive.
— Pros: You can do any work on those Images whose Originals are stored in the Library regardless of where the external drive is.
— Cons: Yet another level more difficult to administer.
If you are comfortable with the administrative overhead, the third set-up will be the most rewarding. Keep all _current_ Images Originals inside your Library, and routinely relocate the Originals of Images no longer current to the external drive.
In no case is it recommended that you at any time remove from your Library an Image (not the Original — the Image in Aperture) that you expect to ever use again.
HTH,
—Kirby.

What is the best way to consolidate Aperture and iPhoto libraries onto an external drive? I am just starting out and not used to Aperture filing system.

I would like to use the drive as storage/aperture backup rather than use it to back up my whole Macbook. Would like to keep the majority of the photo files on the ext. drive and be able to add files there directly. BUT, when workng in aperture would like to be able to select some from the ext. drive and work them on the laptop directly without having to have the ext drive attached.
So do i, have the aperture library path mapped to the ext drive, and then import the iphoto library? and then how do i add additional from the camera? Or, do i move everything together (imported iphotos and new from camera) in Aperture on the Macbook first, and then transfer that library to the ext drive?
For the life of me I can't figure out how to do this in a way that seems logical. Vaults? Masters on ext drive, versions on the macbook? Consolidating libraries? The endless possible answers are baffling me.
Thanks for any help!

Kirby Krieger wrote:
Hi Shane. Not much in the way of thoughts - - but fwiw:
How is the drive attached?
Can you open large files on the drive with other programs?
Are you running any drive compression or acceleration programs (some drives arrive with these installed)?
Can you reformat the drive and try again?
Hi Kirby,
I attached the UltraMax Plus with a USB cable. The UltraMax powers the cable so power is not an issue. I can open other files. Also, there is 500GB of files on the drive so I cannot re-format it. Although, I noted I could import the entire Aperture Library. However, I do not want to create a duplicate on my machine because that would be defeating the purpose of the external drive.
Thanks,
Shane

Large aperture library on external drive; too large to move to internal before switching to photos

I have a 395gb aperture library on an external drive. It used to reside on my old macbook pro, but i got a new one (retina) with a smaller hard drive and i haven't found a way to bring it over yet. My plan was (and i started) to slim it down by getting rid of photos and projects that I don't need, but it'll take a while.
I was hoping i could bring it over piecemeal, like by exporting some folders/projects as aperture libraries, and then importing them into photos, but i'm not sure that's possible.
I tried opening the aperture library (on the external) in photos so it would migrate, but it said i need much more space (the external is pretty full). Any ideas?
Thanks,
Adam

jpvp wrote:
Hi,
NoisyScott: do I understand it correctly that your masterfiles on the server are just sitting in a folder individually, or are they within an aperture library that is on the server that just has your masterfiles???
And FINALLY: can you back up your referenced files (or versions) as well, and how do you go about that?
My master files are just sitting in folders on the server. I leave the Aperture Library on my laptop hard drive as it just contains thumbnails, previews and the actual Aperture database.
You can back up your master images any way you want; a separate hard drive, a Network Attached Storage device, Mozy.com, Amazon S3, etc. The issue is that backing up these images is now up to you as you can't use the Aperture Vaults with referenced masters.
For what it is worth, moving master images around in Aperture is ridiculously easy once you get used to it. You can Reference your masters to a new location at any time you want, as many times as you like then change your mind and consolidate them to your Aperture Library (and thus make them managed masters again) all without Aperture missing a beat.
The critical thing to remember is you must do any and all Master Image file operations through Aperture.
If you decide to re-organize your Master Image folder structure through the finder, Aperture will no longer be able to connect to those Master Images and you then have to attempt to re-connect the images to the references in the Aperture database. This sounds like it should be easy, but for some reason Aperture has a very difficult time doing this. If you only ever use Aperture to move the files around, everything works swimmingly.
Try all of the Relocate and Consolidate Masters functions with a small test project or two at first until you are comfortable with how you want to organize all of your files and then go for it.
Good luck.

Use external drive for both Time Machine and storage for Back to My Mac

Hi all,
I have been "a Mac" now for over a year and just keep finding cool new things that make me happy I switched. The latest thing is Back to My Mac offered with my Mobile Me account. With a rather convoluted mix of PC/Mac/iOS devices to manage - best $99 I ever spent btw...
I also have a 1TB Time Capsule that I have been using with Time Machine to back up all four of my Mac computers at home. Needless to say, the 1TB is really struggling to handle the amount of data being backed up and certainly leaves no room for anything else.
What I wanted to do was to attach a larger external hard drive via a powered hub to the USB port on the Time Capsule and use it for Time Machine backups while using the internal 1TB drive with Back to My Mac so that I can have remote access to all my data from anywhere without having to leave my computer running at home all the time in order for my laptop to "see" it when I'm away. And, yes, the amount of that data far exceeds what any level of Mobile Me subscription can offer! I should also mention that the hard drive is the only USB device connected through the hub to the Time Capsule at the moment. There are no other devices that might be "getting in the way".
I'm thinking maybe all this is asking too much without the addition of a dedicated file server (Mac Mini, perhaps - not a purchase my budget wants to make).
I understand that the Time Capsule doesn't support partitions, so I bought a Western Digital 2TB Elements drive, connected it to my Macbook Pro and used Disk Utility to reformat the drive from the incompatible NTFS it shipped in to a single, Mac OS Extended (Journaled) partition. I then made two folders on the drive, one for Time Machine backups and one for Back to My Mac remote storage/access. Great.
However, when I connected the 2TB drive to my Time Capsule I could not see it at all. Time Capsule was reporting problems in the way of a disk error. From within my Airport Utility, I could see the trouble was the external drive. The utility suggested connecting the drive to a Mac and using it's Disk Utility to troubleshoot.
I followed through, checking the disk, etc. and ended up reformatted the drive on my Macbook Pro yet again with the same specifications as before but without the folders and reconnected it to the Time Capsule. Same deal. But now, I can't even remotely connect to the Time Capsule at all. I can see the Time Capsule in the shared area of my Macbook's Finder but can not connect. The connection tries and fails even before it gets to asking me for username and password credentials.
Long story short, first of all, I suppose I would like to know if I'm asking for the impossible?
Second, if what I want to do *is* possible, what steps do I need to take to make it so?
Thanks in advance for any advice or suggestions you might have.

Well, I have now reformatted/partitioned my poor WD Elements 2TB drive about a dozen times as well as restarted my 1TB Time Capsule so many times it's no wonder it's as confused as I am! <G>
Last night, at your suggestion, William, and in respect for your continued support, I tried creating two 1TB Mac OS Extended (Journaled) partitions on the WD external USB drive, both with GUID partition tables. Both volumes mounted to my laptop's desktop flawlessly and without issue.
Once the external drive was connected to the Time Capsule, however, it was a crap shoot as to whether or not the drive was recognized at all, reporting a problem with the disk, or, even at one point, mounting one of the two volumes but not both. <sigh>
I read somewhere on the Internet that you need to restart the Time Capsule for volumes on an external USB drive to be recognized.
So I tried that. I connected the freshly partitioned/formatted disk to the Time Capsule and restarted it. This succeed in removing the issue of reporting a nameless drive with a capacity of 0MB. It then reported the drive with its correct name but would not recognize whatever volumes in whatever partitions that particular crack at it contained with the exception of the once, as I mentioned above, when only one of two volumes mounted correctly and was listed with the right name and capacity on the Time Capusule's Setup's Disk tab.
At this point I have given up on my goal to use the external drive with Time Machine to back up my Macs or to hope I will ever be able to see its contents remotely via Back to My Mac. All I would like to do now is simply find a reason why I can't get it successfully connected and playing nice with my Time Capsule in the first place!
Any further suggestions or advice as to what steps I might take next would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you all.

Aperture, partial external drive storage-possible ?

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